Trial and Error
by crazyinlove.sky15
Summary: So I was thinking about finishing Summer Song but then I got a thousand more ideas so I just decided I'm going to have you all vote. I'm going to post part of the first chapter and you all can leave your votes in the reviews. PLEAAASE help me I'm dying here.
1. Beta Project

**Chase**

"Alright guys," Mr. Davenport interrupts our activities like he normally does when he has good news...or bad."I have a new task for you." I roll my eyes.

"Let me guess," I begin, already expecting a horrible disaster such as a runaway train or a rogue exoskeleton or a haywire design of some sort,"you invented the worlds first self-sufficient underwater colony and the inhabitants now wreak havoc on our coastlines threatening to push inward obliterating the immediate population and you need us to make sure that this doesn't happen." everyone looks at me sideways, like I just said something wrong.

"What?" I ask defensively. They all look back at Davenport, trying to forget my preceding comment.

"No. Actually, this one you all might enjoy." he says hopefully.

"Oh, really?" Bree joins, "How so?"

"You all know how I haven't been around much lately?"

We all nod.

Davenport goes into the details about how he was going through our files making sure everything was still alright and he had a thought. We glitch because we're human, we were born and raised as humans. But if we _weren't_ human?

"What do you mean if we weren't human?" Bree asks dubiously.

"I mean, what if you were grown? _Here_ in the lab with your bionics already in your DNA?"

We all look at him with looks of confusion and intrigue. And worry, I'm fairly certain of what he is about to say he's done and I can almost feel the weight of the consequences on my shoulders.

"Your anatomy would have already conditioned itself to the science. It would become natural, like walking or learning to talk. You wouldn't need all of this maintenance and mainstreaming for your bionics."

"Why are you telling us all this?" I ask. "I mean all of that sounds great and all, Adam, Bree and I _are_ human. There's no way we can change that."

"You're right. You three are what you are and there's no changing that, _but_-"

_I don't like that but_, I think.

"I created a new type of soldier. One that doesn't feel pain, doesn't feel fear. One that's stronger, faster, and smarter than anything else in the world."

"Even us?" Adam asks. I'm actually surprised he's payed attention this long. We know Adam has the attention span of a drunk Paris Hilton. If it isn't wet, dirty, or disgusting, we don't expect him to tune in that long.

"Well," Mr. Davenport continues,"That's what we're going to see."

"What right now?" Leo finally chimes in.

"Yes. Right now." Davenport agrees. A wave of excitement runs through me without my volition. Maybe it's my love of science along with the tediousness and my desperate need for something to do.

"Cool." I say.

"Awesome!" Adam exclaims.

"Sweet! Let"s go!" Bree says.

We all get to our feet and follow Mr. Davenport to the elevator. From there we ride to the floor below his major art vault with all those creepy portraits of him in famous paintings. Honestly, sometimes I wonder if went through a rough childhood or something because he is one messed up adult. A bit too juvenile and narcissistic. When we arrive on the floor I realize Adam, Bree and I have never been here. I assume they haven't because I haven't, and being the team leader I can make those kinds of assumptions.

The floor is actually not that big, more like a room. Stark white and glowing. Completely empty other than three tubes at the far end of the room. Inside each of them is the body of a human. The left one houses the body of a male- blonde hair, sharp features, looks about seventeen- in the middle is a girl- ice blonde hair rises above her head in the liquid, her pale skin is flawless and appears artificially shiney. Maybe that's just the illusion of ectoplasm. Her features are striking, generally speaking, her nose is small and perfectly shaped with a triangular sort of look. Her eyelashes are black despite her nearly white hair, eyebrows too. I can't see the color of her eyes because they're closed. Her face is placid, unmoving. In the third is a boy, no older than seven. His curly black hair sways up like the girl's, his face is round and youthful. On the two boys, their legs are covered in a white cloth. The one girl is covered from her chest to the tip of her thighs on a white cloth that looks as though she was rolled in a towel. It almost melts into her skin if only her skin didn't have the lively blush that made her human.

Almost human.

I am speechless, Leo however always finds something to say. It's a good thing because there are so many things I want to ask but I can't find the voice to speak them.

"Woah." Leo gasps. "What is this place?"

"This," davenport stops and turns to face us,"is what I call the Beta Room. This is the Beta Project."

"Beta?" Bree asks, sweeping her eyes over the bodies in glass.

"Bionic Extra Terrestrial Alliance."

"Extra Terrestrial?" I ask, stepping closer to the case with the girl in it. There's something fascinating about her. Something...ineluctable.

_Focus_. I tell myself.

"Look, there's a lot of stuff riding on this project and I promise over time you'll learn all you need to know, but for right now I need you to do something for me."

I turn my attention away from the Beta and stare at Mr. Davenport with an expectant look.

He turns to the screen for Eddy's appearance.

"MILA, release Beta3-1-2." Davenport spats to his new security emoticon. She replaced EADDIE, EDDY's ex. It was a hard break up, she was so depressed she broke down and died. Poor girl...what am I _saying_? She was a freaking emoticon, a piece of equipment. They don't date. A robotic female voice. Booms through the room.

"Releasing Beta3-0-2" davenport's face pales.

"No no! 3 ONE 2! 3-1-2!" He screams but its to late. The liquid in the middle capsule begins to recede. Mr. Davenport runs to the wall and scans his hand on the screen. A mini lab unfolds and he starts rapidly pressing buttons in an attempt to stop the process but to no avail. The water clears, the glass lifts and the girl falls limp into my arms. I sit on the floor and lay her across my lap, pushing a drenched lock of white hair behind her ear revealing the tricirclular mark on her shoulder I recognize immediately.

It's the mark of Davenport Industries.


	2. Cybernetic

**Cybernetic**

When I say my heart is broken, I mean something a little different. Actually, I mean exactly what I said. Four pounds of metal beats steady in my chest where my heart should be. Before you ask, no I am not a robot. No, I was not born like this. My life was normal, almost perfect. Almost. Until an accident changed everything.

I remember falling really, really far. I don't know whether it was suicide or accidental. I must have hit my head because I don't remember much of anything. Just my name, Carissa Parker, and that I don't belong here. Yet somehow, here I am. In a lab, three hundred feet below the surface, in a chair hooked up to colorful wires next to a noisy computer that beeps randomly every couple of minutes, and a scientist who sits at his desk and grunts occasionally while searching through, what I assume to be, my anatomy diagnostic for God knows what.

"Hold still." Are the only words he speak through the hours, before he presses a button on the computer sending a shock of electricity through every wire on my body. I tense justly as the bolts stretch my taut muscles, and the burning sensation in all of my cells. I wonder if this is humane, legal is off the table. It's been this way for four months. Testing, training, adjusting, for what? I don't know. That seems to be my answer for everything these days.

Douglas, the scientist, tell my everything I need to know. That legally I am dead. My family, whoever they are, doesn't know that I'm alive and it's probably best it stays that way. There's no need to scare them or confuse them with answers I don't have. He doesn't know who they are anyway. Douglas said he found me outside of a warehouse, trashed beyond its suitability. Probably a big party, I might have been intoxicated and accidentally fell of a roof. Anyway, he found me, said that I uttered something unintelligible and he figured I could still be saved. He then carried me to his home and replaced my un-beating heart with a bionic one. Four months later, I'm sitting in a chair, my new heart pulsing like thunder in my ears. The shocks hurt, but once the pain subsides it actually feels...nice. Like warm honey seeping through my veins, instead of blood. It feels peaceful, calming. I wish I felt like this all the time.

I look at Douglas. He finishes writing down his last notes before he puts his hand on the computer.

"One more time." He says.

"What are you doing?" I blurt out. Douglas has become like a father to me in the past four months. Feeding me, helping me, making sure I don't forget to record _Funeral Mishaps:LA. _I don't fear him in any specific kind of way, but he doesn't like me asking questions in the middle of his work. I know this, I just have to know why I'm being barbecued.

He looks up at me, to my relief he doesn't look angry.

"I'm rejuvenating your heart. I used an SLI battery when connecting your heart to your brain. You see every time you think, your brain is generating an electrical brain wave we _scientists-_" he says 'scientists' with so much bravado it sounds like he's talking about his 'amazing hair'. "like to call _Neural Oscillation..." _He begins dissecting the topic like I asked him to but my mind drifts a way. I feel dizzy for a second.

_SLI? _I think_, that's a car battery._

Why do I know that? I don't remember much from my old life, but I know I didn't study mechanics. And right before Douglas told me the technical term for brain waves I had the term pulling at my ears, echoing in my mind. But it wasn't my voice saying that.

{FF}

I stare down at the tools in front of me. I missed the teachers instructions on what do because I was on that 'deja vu' thing again. How is it that I can be so good at Chemistry, when I walked in here all I felt was loathing, and I don't even know what you do in this class. So it's us. Me, a Petri dish, two beakers filled with a red and green substance, three drop-thingies I have a feeling I never knew the name of and the ghost of my never-present lab partner who seems keen on scolding the tall boy across the room- Adam, I believe his name was?- who keeps trying to drink the liquid in the beaker.

_He's going to blow up the place_. I think innocuously before turning back to my own obliviousness. Then suddenly it hits me, something clicks inside my mind. The information comes flooding in my brain like water in a cup, and my hands are moving on their own. I take a drop-thingy and fill it halfway with red liquid. I carefully drop three teardrops on the Petri dish and I watch it bubble then change to purple, I drop one more teardrop and it crystallizes right before my eyes. I smile to myself, amazed at the spontaneous transformation. I turn to the green chemical.

I wonder if... I think before I realize my hand is drifting towards the beaker. Just one drop...

At that moment Chase returns from reprimanding his little-big brother and he sounds like I'm setting a bomb when he says, "Don't do that! You're going to-"

He grabs my hand reaching for the drop-thingy when immediately I feel something pull. It's like all the breath in my lungs rushes out of my body, my heart speeds up past the speed of a heart attack. Everything is moving fast except for me, I'm frozen. He's frozen too, he looks as shocked as I feel, his breathing is heavy and chopped. I don't know how to describe this feeling, it's like...I'm standing where he is in his body and he's standing in mine. We're one person in two places and now gravity is pulling us together. Literally, we're both leaning closer and I don't know how to stop.

"What-what's happening?" he says incredulously. He doesn't know how to stop it either.

"I don't know." I breath the words as I stop fighting the pull. I stop fighting because I can't fight, a big part of me doesn't want to. It's like I'm floating on clouds, in between sleeping and dreaming. It's...magical.

Our lips barely touch when Ms. Jensen calls us out.

"Miss Parker, Chase. Should we clear the room and give you two some space?" she says. I flush red. I had forgotten we were in chemistry class. I try to speak up but my body is still frozen. Now with humiliation. Chase speaks up instead. "No ma'am." He says tersely, he's staring at me. His eyes are a mixture of confusion, surprise, embarrassment, and something else. I can't put my finger on it, but I can tell he just felt everything that I felt. My heart, the bionic part heats up and vibrates like a cell phone. It hurts really bad- burns- but I manage to ignore it hoping that it goes away.

"Have you finished your project?" Ms. Jensen continues to inquire, my heart continues to burn, as long as he's looking at me it's like a fire has started because something is broken. Panic sets in.

What if that happened?

"Yes. We finished."

I _finished_. I think but my bitterness is seared through by fire.

Hot. Hot. I need to get out.

"Okay then you need to finish the worksheet I gave you-"

I can't take it anymore. I clutch my chest where my heart is and make my way around the back of the room.

"Miss Parker where are you going?"

I ignore her shake down. In time my speed walking becomes running and I bolt out the door, trying not to super speed to the bathroom but I am running hella fast. I almost break the door down, panting when I reach asylum. When the door finally closes I lean back against it. My brain is pulsing. All I hear is _thump thump- thump thump_. Over and over and over again. Am I having a heart attack? I honestly feel like I'm having a heart attack. On the _sun_. I hurriedly stick my hand- shaking- in my pocket and reach for the silver bullet syringe Douglas gave me when he sent me off to school. With my fingers trembling I stick the needle in my shoulder and breath. A little pinch, and then it feels like ice is moving through my veins cooling me off on the inside.

Thank you. I think, truly relieved. My tense muscles soften, I can breath normally again. When my heart is broken, that is never a good thing.

Chase

I scratch the skin above my chip, the thing is burning like a hot stove. And it's tingling like somehow its been replaced with cotton. That was weird. I don't think I have ever glitched that way before. It was like the walls were closing in on just us...it didn't make any sense. I'll have to talk to Davenport as soon as I get home. In the mean time, who is that girl? How come she could feel everything I was feeling? I know she could. It was like I was _in_ her. In some weird spiritual kind of way. I could feel everything she was feeling, know everything she was thinking...

This doesn't make sense. And that's coming from _me_. Which means, there is something unambiguously wrong. I awkwardly walk back over to Adam and Caitlin's table.

"What. Was. _That_?" Caitlin says incredulously.

"Yea. Dude, you didn't tell me you have a girlfriend." Adam says slapping my shoulder.

"It's cause I don't." I say.

"Well that explains why she ran out the classroom. What'd you do? Mind control or something?" Adam's snarky remarks fly right over my head right now. I'm too lost in that last sentence to focus on anything else.

_Mind control_.

"Something like that." I answer.


End file.
